Crime and No Punishment

"Affluenza"

A wealthy Texas teenager who killed four pedestrians in a DUI is being let off with only probation because he was afflicted with a curious disease: ‘affluenza’. No joke. The LA Times explains exactly how this dreaded scourge works:

A psychologist testified for the defense that the teen is a product of something he called “affluenza” and doesn’t link bad behavior with consequences because his parents taught him that wealth buys privilege, the psychologist said in court, according to media reports.

That psychologist cited one instance when the boy, then 15, was caught in a parked pickup with a naked 14-year-old girl who was passed out. He was never punished, the psychologist said, noting to the court that the teenager was allowed to drink at a very young age, and even began driving at 13.

We’re not highly-paid psychiatrist-consultants, but we do think there is one surefire cure for a bad case of ‘affluenza’: jail.

We’re also not, of course, in a position to judge all of the facts in the case; there could be much going on here that doesn’t come across in the article. But the idea that someone should get better treatment because he or she is wealthy and therefore has a poor moral compass is insane and destructive. It’s hard to imagine a greater perversion of the principle of equality before the law.